Magic Cabinet CEO C’Ardiss “CC” Gardner Gleser reflects on her first 100 days
For most of my career I’ve been a storyteller and bridge builder. My journey has been shaped by a deep commitment to community and a passion for cultivating spaces where justice, healing, and joy can flourish. I connect people. I honor relationships. And I create pathways for communities to thrive.
I’m also a wife, a mother, a sister, and a daughter. You’ll often hear me speak of my ancestors, whose wisdom, dreams, and stories keep me rooted in purpose and in this work we call philanthropy.
Earlier this year, all those paths converged as I stepped into my new role as the CEO of Magic Cabinet.
"Over the past three months, I’ve experienced many beautiful and transformative moments in community with grantees, funders, leaders, and visionaries who are dreaming and actively shaping the future of philanthropy."
I’ve also had the privilege of collaborating with the incredibly talented Magic Cabinet crew. This team truly brings their passion, energy, and expertise to this work and it shows; not just through the work itself but also through the caliber of relationships they’ve built over time and the safety our partners feel in continuing to show up and experiment alongside us.
It’s these moments that are embedded in mind and carry special weight as we build a refreshed vision for Magic Cabinet’s next chapter of growth.
For eight years, Magic Cabinet has worked to shift power by investing in small, community-based organizations in California, Washington , and Puerto Rico, resourcing their work long-term through a community-informed, cohort-based grantmaking model. They’ve also committed significant resources to experiment and learn alongside grantees to identify what’s working and where we have the power to shift hearts, minds, and practice.
As we move into our next era—one we’re calling Magic Cabinet 3.0—we are poised to really shake the table.
Right now, we’re scaling our team to deepen the level of support we offer our grantees. We’re cultivating new partnerships so we can mobilize more funding to communities in more creative ways. We’re also asking better questions of philanthropy and interrogating our own norms and practices, so we can evolve at the pace that nonprofits are asking us to. This looks like proactive, long-term, and unrestricted funding.
While our goal is to return money and resources to communities, we’re also getting really clear about who and how we fund. We know long-term commitments sustain movements and create the conditions for systems-level change. And we recognize that Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latine, and Immigrant communities are on the frontlines of this work. We’re committed to acknowledging the historic harms that got us here and uplifting the places where repair is urgent and necessary.
We also know that narrative is a powerful tool that has been weaponized to keep communities divided and without access to resources that keep them safe. It’s time to dismantle these stories and seed new ones that remind us of our shared humanity and help solidarity take root.
Ultimately, I believe this work is about healing and holding space for all that’s come before and all that we’re visioning for the future.
100 days in and I’m convinced—Magic Cabinet might just be philanthropy’s best kept secret. But we won’t be for long.
In community,
C’Ardiss “CC” Gardner Gleser
